Barnfloor And Winepress - Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 2 Kings VI: 27

Thou that on sin's wages starvest, Behold we have the joy in harvest: For us was gather'd the first fruits, For us was lifted from the roots, Sheaved in cruel bands, bruised sore, Scourged upon the threshing-floor; Where the upper mill-stone roof'd His head, At morn we found the heavenly Bread, And, on a thousand altars laid, Christ our Sacrifice is made!

Thou whose dry plot for moisture gapes, We shout with them that tread the grapes: For us the Vine was fenced with thorn, Five ways the precious branches torn; Terrible fruit was on the treeIn the acre of Gethsemane; For us by Calvary's distressThe wine was racked from the press; Now in our altar-vessels storedIs the sweet Vintage of our Lord.

In Joseph's garden they threw by The riv'n Vine, leafless, lifeless, dry: On Easter morn the Tree was forth, In forty days reach'd heaven from earth; Soon the whole world is overspread; Ye weary, come into the shade.

The field where He has planted usShall shake her fruit as Libanus, When He has sheaved us in His sheaf, When He has made us bear his leaf. - We scarcely call that banquet food, But even our Saviour's and our blood, We are so grafted on His wood.